Maduro got off lightly |
Nicolas Maduro is a very lucky man. The Venezuelan dictator – or ex-dictator now – might not feel that way as he enjoys the hospitality of the U.S. justice system after being snatched from the safety and comfort of his own capital on the orders of President Trump. But once he’s had a bit of time to relax, he should compare photos of his capture, Nike-clad and brandishing a water bottle, to the way Saddam Hussein looked when he was dragged out his “spider hole” in 2003 – or the way Muammar Gaddafi looked when a mob of his own people got done with him.
Maduro didn’t lose a war or get killed in a revolution against this rule. If elements of his own regime collaborated with the U.S. to get rid of him, he nonetheless would have fared worse if some Venezuelan colonel had dealt with him the way Latin American militaries historically deal with inconvenient leaders. No dictator hopes to end up like Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian strongman toppled, arrested, tried, and imprisoned by the United States in the days of the George H.W. Bush administration, but there are far worse fates for those who lead that lifestyle.
‘Venezuela was in no position to resist the U.S. even when Maduro was ensconced in his palace.’
Trump has once again defied the laws of probability, as well as the rules his critics and many of his supporters alike insist he follow. MAGA’s non-interventionist wing says he shouldn’t have acted against Venezuela at all. Neoconservatives........